ZigZag.io, a Lightning Network payment channel to facilitate the exchange of crypto assets today announced it has launched on mainnet. Users can now exchange top cryptocurrencies at some of the lowest fees anywhere. The new service currently offers the ability to exchange from BTC to ETH, LTC, DASH and BCH.
A Lightning Network-enabled wallet is needed to make such exchanges. Wallets such as Zap, Eclair, Lightning, and HTLC.me all have the same functions as regular cryptocurrency wallets but also allow for instant sending and receiving of payments via the Lightning Network.
ZigZag was created by Bitlum, a startup building products, and services on top of the Lightning Network. The team stated it will continue adding new assets once the Lightning Network is enabled on different blockchains, and is currently accepting suggestions.
Lightning Network
Lightning is a decentralized network that utilizes smart contract functionality to enable instant payments across a network of users. Similar to how the internet has been built in layers, Lightning creates a second layer to Bitcoin and allows blockchains to scale offering instant, high-volume payments. All payments are exchanged off the blockchain, thus eliminating time-consuming confirmation wait periods.
In ZigZag’s future development, the team is planning to adopt Atomic Swaps. Using this decentralized technology allows for the exchange of assets in seconds, and cross-chain. Thus eliminating the need for trust in 3rd party custodians.
